Chapter 227: Robin and Her Crew Surrounded

The Beasts Pirates, led by Kaido, were notorious for their unpredictability, with Kaido himself known for frequently killing his own subordinates. The safety factor under such a captain was simply too low. Moreover, recognizing a boss who was constantly seeking ways to end his own life didn't seem reliable to Wood.

As for Big Mom, she could be quite dependable when not in one of her frenzied states. However, the key to becoming one of her "family" required either marrying one of her sons or becoming her son-in-law. Being a man, the former option of marrying one of her sons was obviously off the table for Wood, leaving the only choice of marrying one of her daughters.

But, if Wood was being honest, Big Mom's daughters... It's not that they were unattractive—some of them were actually quite decent, like the three-eyed girl, Pudding. Unfortunately, at this point in the timeline, Pudding was still likely just a child, so Wood had no chance there. As for the others of suitable age...

Of course, if Wood were ruthless enough with himself, he could consider Big Mom herself. But her sheer size made her a daunting prospect, and Wood doubted he had the stamina for such a "wealthy woman"!

With those two pirate crews ruled out, the only remaining option was the Whitebeard Pirates. Compared to the other two, the Whitebeard Pirates were undoubtedly the most powerful. Additionally, joining them didn't require transforming into a strange animal or marrying someone's daughter—all it took was calling someone "Pops" and becoming one of Whitebeard's sons.

The key difference was that Whitebeard valued loyalty and camaraderie far more than Kaido or Big Mom. However, before Wood could even attempt to latch onto this "big leg," he found himself caught up in the situation on Minion Island.

Now, as Robin and the others were preparing to cross the Red Line and return to the first half of the Grand Line, their ship's pirate flag was recognized, leading to them being surrounded by several pirate crews.

A pirate ship valued at 6.5 billion Berries was something no pirate could ignore if they happened to come across it. Initially, the pirate crews that appeared were merely small fry, wary of Wood's reputation and hesitant to make a move. But soon, these lesser pirates sold the rough location of the Dark Maru's activity to the underworld as information.

This information was quickly bought and sold, eventually reaching some of the more notable pirate crews in the New World, who then converged on their location. At first, these pirate crews merely threw out half-hearted provocations, each one aware that they were competing with one another and that Wood's name carried weight.

But as they realized that more competitors would soon arrive, and seeing that the marine deserter Wood wasn't responding to their provocations, their courage began to grow.

Now, facing a dire situation with enemies on all sides, Ruth and Robin's crew were getting increasingly desperate.

"Maybe we should just hand over the Berries on board," someone suggested, glancing nervously at the growing number of pirate ships appearing on the horizon. "If Captain Wood isn't here, we don't stand a chance of holding onto these treasures!"

But as soon as he said this, Ruth smacked him on the head.

"They're pirates! Do you really think they'll just let us go if we hand over the treasure? The only reason they haven't attacked us yet is because they're wary of the Captain. If we start handing over treasure, it's as good as telling them that something's wrong with our crew!"

The others on the ship fell silent, realizing that Ruth had a point. If they put themselves in the pirates' shoes, they had to admit that he was right.

"I've already contacted Captain Tiger through the Den Den Mushi connected to Wood. The Sun Pirates should be on their way here as fast as they can. But it's strange—Wood has two private Den Den Mushi, one for Tiger, and the other one has a long white beard. I just connected to it, but the person on the other end immediately hung up," Robin explained.

The Nirvana Pirates had only been established recently, and the only connections they had were with Fish-Man Island and Captain Tiger. So, when things started to go south, Robin had quickly and wisely sought Tiger's help.

"But even with the help of the Sun Pirates, can they really take on this many pirate crews?" Ruth asked, surveying the many ships now surrounding them. He knew that this was just the beginning. Once word got out, more pirates would descend on them like sharks smelling blood.

While Tiger and Jinbe were indeed powerful, they might not be enough to hold off all these enemies.

"The Fish-Men are much stronger than humans in the water. If we abandon the ship and other possessions, Captain Tiger should be able to guarantee our escape," Robin replied.

She had explained the situation to Tiger, who, after some thought, had assured her that as long as no particularly formidable opponents showed up, they could abandon the treasure and escape with Wood.

"Abandon the ship and everything on it? But that's the 5 billion Berries the Captain worked so hard to steal..." Ruth muttered, clearly struggling with the idea. Their pirate crew had been running at a deficit for so long, and they had nearly starved on more than one occasion. Now, they finally had a massive fortune, only to hand it over?

And this time, the deficit would be even worse—they might not even have a ship left as pirates...

Losing the 5 billion Berries was one thing, since Wood had stolen that himself, but they also had 300 million Berries from legitimate business deals on board. Was it fair that they, as pirates, would lose their hard-earned money too?

"We're lucky to get out of this alive. What's the point in worrying about the money now?" Robin said firmly, taking charge in Wood's absence.

As Ruth prepared to follow Robin's plan and steer the ship toward the rendezvous point with Tiger, Rosinante, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up.

"Did you say Captain Wood has a long-bearded Den Den Mushi?"

Unlike Wood, who had a certain flair as an undercover agent, Rosinante's methods of contacting the Marines were more cumbersome. It was because of this that, in the original storyline, when he had sent Law to seek help, his message had accidentally been intercepted by Vergo, exposing his identity.

"Does the Den Den Mushi with the long beard also have glasses?" Rosinante asked, his eyes narrowing.

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P/S: If you are interested, you can read up to chapter 350+ at p@treon.com/Betek and change @ to a